With the increased usage of boats and other watercraft, more dangerous boating conditions have been created by the higher density of traffic on bodies of water used for navigation and recreation. This heightened activity on waterways has likewise increased the need for safety devices which help to alleviate the problems. These safety concerns are particularly important for those engaging in watercraft activity during twilight, nighttime, and inclement weather conditions due to decreased visibility and the need for elevated levels of awareness.
This need for increased safety has been recognized by governments and their almost universal legislative mandates requiring navigational lights on watercraft. Typical conventional navigational running lights consist of a single light located at the bow of the boat having a green lens on the starboard side and a red lens on the port side of the boat and a single light located at the stern of the boat. Unfortunately, this precautionary effort by government has proven inadequate as the number of accidents involving watercraft continues to occur with regularity. The resulting cost in human and material resources is significant.
Many reasons exist to explain the causes of these accidents, but most reasons involve the low visibility of watercraft at night even though these watercraft are properly equipped with required navigational running lights. A shortcoming of conventional navigational lights mounted on watercraft is that these conventional lighting systems do not readily allow watercraft operators to determine the distance and orientation of other watercraft in the vicinity. This inability of watercraft operators to determine depth-of-field by observing other watercraft navigational lights can cause watercraft operators to erroneously conclude that navigational lights of other watercraft are lights located on shore. The orientation of watercraft is also difficult to determine from navigational lights because at even minimal distances, blending of the different colored navigational lights tends to occur causing confusion to other watercraft operators. Conventional navigational light assemblies may produce glare off of the windshield of the watercraft hampering the vision of or otherwise distracting the watercraft operator.
Another problem with conventional navigational lighting on watercraft is the inability of the lighting system to communicate the relative motion of the watercraft on the water to observers not on that watercraft. This is an especially significant problem when watercraft are substantially stationary in the water, as occurs when anchored during fishing or other stationary activity, for example.